El Salvador and Russia take further steps in strategic and commercial cooperation

Since 2009 and in the context of the increase of Russian influence in the region, both governments have been working in the deepening of their bilateral ties.

The chancellors Hugo Martinez from El Salvador and Sergey Lavrov from Russia met last Wednesday in Moscow in order to "reaffirm the interest of both nations to strengthen the commercial and cooperation ties", as the Salvadoran chancellery detailed in a release.

There are different bilateral agreements "in the process of being implemented", such as the exemption of visas between the two countries, and the development of a scholarship program allowing Salvadoran students to enroll in Russian universities.

Among other issues, the officials discussed about the participation of Russia in the Central American Integration System (SICA), a regional body to which the Eurasian nation presented its application as an observer and extra-regional member in March of this year, and about the collaboration and experience that Moscow can offer to El Salvador in areas such as management of environmental risks and disasters, general security, drug trafficking, and fighting organized crime.

In a press conference following the meeting, Martinez also informed about the different bilateral agreements "in the process of being implemented", such as the exemption of visas between the two countries, and the development of a scholarship program allowing Salvadoran students to enroll in Russian universities.

Russia and El Salvador established diplomatic ties in 1992, but starting in 2009, ever since the government of Funes Cartagena — succeeded by his former vicepresident Salvador Sanchez Ceren —, these have intensified and dynamized. On that sense, Martinez said that both countries "have a road ahead with many perspectives".

El Salvador is not the only Latin American nation with which Moscow has been deepening ties in the latest years. After the sanctions imposed by the NATO regimes in the context of the Ukranian crisis, and in a favorable political context over the rejection of many regional countries to the United States interference, Russia has established a number of strategic agreements on investments, security, military material, energy, research, nuclear development and education with countries such as Guatemala, Nicaragua, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba, among others.

The Manquehue Institute for Strategic Studies is a civic organization that pursues both the development of strategic views on main topics related to Latin American countries aimed at the local people, and projecting a faithful image of this region to the world.